Roomy, Great Handling

Windshield wipers, lights tend to get water in them (both of mine did), Rust easily, Bad resale

I love Ventures I owned a 97 for 3 years then upgraded to a 01 six months ago. There are good things and bad. The car is solid but things inside break easily. I never had any major repairs but the tan?gold color is really rusty. No kidding I just traded it in because the rust spots were taking over and that is insane. Spots everywhere. Really bad resale. I didn't get much when I traded it in.

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1997 chevy Venture

Runs smooth, rides smooth, great acceleration for a minivan

None really.

So far I love the vehicle. I traded in a 2000 4Runner so I could have more room and better milage. I've been very happy on both accounts. My kids love all the room and it rides very smooth. There is very good acceleration from the engine to go with decent gas milage. Everything appears to work well and there are no rattles.. The cup holders don't fit a 44oz soda very well, maybe that means I should not drink so much.. I also wish there was a second 12v power plug in the front of the vehicle.

Then only strength is it gets great gas milage.

Bad engine and electrical problems

The car was seemed to be a great vehicle, but sometimes it wouldn't start when ignition was turned. I thought it was just me. First problem was the automatic lock, when put into drive, didn't work. Brought it to the dealer and they fixed it. We also have had electrical problems with the rear lights. First they'd blow out pretty quick, so we bought some from an auto place instead of regular retail store. Sometimes when we push the break the turn signals don't work. Then the cruise control turns off if you have the turn signal on and switch lanes on the highway. OH YA, Can't forget after having it for only a year and 4 months and 69,000 miles on it, it blew a rod and our engine went caput. Thank God our insurance had a mechanical breakdown warranty for up to 100,000 miles on it. We only had to pay $250 for that. The new/used engine is warranteed up to that also. Which, when it was put in, it had 26,000 miles on it. So far the new/used engine is doing ok, but we still have electrical problems. We kept the engine maintained and still do.

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We had a 1994 Ford Tempo that we ran into the ground and didn't regularly maintain it and didn't have any major problems until it had 170,000 miles on it when a piston blew on it. My father in law warned us about chevy's, but we didn't listen. Now we will.

Perfect ride, roomy, quiet, Toyota reliability rating, good mileage, tight turning circle, lower insurance because of good bumper impact rating.

Feature packages to restrained, must move to the XLE for electric seats. Many feature packages force you into the electric doors. XLE package was too much of a price jump. Difficult to see for backing up. Had to pay sticker price.

Sienna 2004. Ahhh, Life is perfect. Ok, but the Sienna seems to be. I now have almost 12K with one vacation trip. It was a difficult move to go from a Park Ave, (1996) to a van, they just aren’t cool. The girls at work tell me only “old men & house wife’s” drive mini vans (oh well), but I like it. I just think the mini van is such a better value then the SUV’s. I drove work vans, the latest was five years ago, a 96 Caravan but the Sienna is much better. Consumer Reports issue on mini vans, October 2003 was excellent. My wife & I drove them all. I leaned toward the 2004 Odyssey but too noisy and seemed too much like a truck. The Quest was very quiet & nice features packages, but not many shops for maintenance, and the Consumer Reports reliability not rated as good as Toyota, so why bother with out a price break. The Mazda MPV had a rebate at the time and I was on my way to buy it, because it seemed like the best value. However, just like the CR stated, it turned the ”bumps into thumps” and that was annoying, and not as roomy. (leg room front & back) I got the LE because I did not want the electric doors, but I miss some of the Park Ave. features. Cornering lights, heads up display, compass, electric seats, auto climate control, leather, etc. My wife is on her second Camry and I have been so impressed with the Toyota reliability & quietness, but I like a larger vehicle. The Avalon is nice but the van seemed to be a better value. On the van you get 16” tires, 6 cylinders, more room & not much of a hit on the gas mileage. Ordered the Sienna Dec 2003 & picked it up Jan 2004. Don Joseph Toyota was more then fair with a mistake the salesman made when he ordered some features for me, but after I wrote a letter to Jeff Joseph. I am very happy with the DJ Toyota Store, maintenance, parts, Larry etc. You first realize you are pushing around a lot more weight, 4100 lbs. or so and that does change my driving style (no more zoom, zoom, zoom!) I slow down (but there is plenty of power if you need it), no need to push the RPM’s so high unless you need to blend in to traffic. I don’t push the RPM’s over 2500 unless traffic demands, but I am happy with the mileage. Seem to getting 21 ½-city and 26-½ average on my 1200 mile vacation. The air conditioner is good but it does seem harder to heat up such a large space in the winter. My legs stay cold, but maybe that’s just me. I was not planning on buying the extended warranty because I did not think I needed it on a Toyota but it actually seemed like a bargain. When I called a Honda dealer they told me $1700 for 7 years on the Odyssey, but DJ Toyota Store said they discounted the extended warranty 25% and offered it to me for $1069 (seven years/100K). If I would have known I was buying the extended I may have got the electric doors. (Too many people I talked to had trouble with the electric doors & some ended up with a dead battery so I am still better off with out them.) Have to admit not 100% sold on vans like I thought I would be but there are very few negatives. I don’t like backing them up (too hard to see) & when you are lazy it may be easier to drive a car because they are smaller, but I like riding up higher, especially with all the other large vehicles around. I will probably drive this for 8 years or so and if I have not found a good reason to stay with vans may be lazy & go back to cars. That Park Ave sure was nice (Zoom, zoom, zoom, Cool!) but it needed some work or I would still be driving it.

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Dodge Caravan 1996 but did not drive a new one because felt the realiability rating was too low.

powerplant 3.4 v6

everything else

My parents bought this van, thinking buying a gm is a good way to support the north american economy. Well this van is a piece of crap. Let's start with the problems it has. The lights seem to brighten and dim when near idle speed I suspect a bad voltage regulator is to blame for this. The van started making a weird whirring noise audible during increases in RPMs also the van would seem to missifire while cruising causing the van to jerk. Then the transmission started shifting really hard at 220,000 kms (this is hardly any mileage compared to alot of vehicles we have driven), it then lost the ability to shfift into thr higest gear for highway driving (so my mom is babying it at 60/kph for the time being). I beleive the missfire type problem was actually the transmission acting up all along. The CEL is on indictating the tranny is shot. After a brake job the ABS light has stayed on. The crusie control started accelerating the van by itself one day, and would not stop until the key was turned off (dangerous as hell!). The interior is cheap garbage. We haven't had any intake problems that I know of yet. The temp gauge goes whacko from cold to hot very quickly and back down again. When it goes to cold no heat comes put but when it jumps back to warm the heat is back and so on. The only good thing is the 3.4 v6 which has decent power for a mini van. My parent had a 1990 dodge caravan and the only ting that went on the were the head gaskets, they had no other troubles and it was 12 years old before they got rid of it. To have the problems in a 5 year old vehicle is rediculous, where will it be in 10 years (likely in the junkyard). My dad has a 1995 Geo Metro with 450,000kms on it and has never had to fix anything except replace tires. (Geo motors are suzuki!). I myself drive a 1992 eagle talon turbo, which I have no troubles with (alot of people hate talons but know nothing about them). When the van is fixed my parents can't even sell it because the resal value is so low they will loose and not be able to buy anything decent to replace it. I would consider any japanese vehicle in the future e.g. honda (to overpriced), toyota, nissan or mazda. Don't buy this van its a piece of crap. Now they are selling these vans with big front ends on them and calling them something else, whats with that they are horribly ugly. GM SUCKS! Go Dodge or Ford if you want to stay american brand.

excellent ride on highway, nice interior

average quality, many problems in the five years I have the van

Nice road handling on good pavement, suspension has trouble on bad pavement, many electrical problems (4-5 door lock problems, electric window once), intanke manifold had to bme changed at 50000 miles. Interior is nice, bucket seats permit to seat 3 people in the middle row (most van have 2 seats in the middle row, fifth person must sit in the back), sliding door are very heavy compared to other vans, no transmission problem, fan problems twice (some speed were not working), had a water infiltration problem with the front windshield, had to repaint the hood because many large paint bubbles appeared (with rust) at 40000 miles

Roomy, the AC works well.

Obvious safety hazzards.

My 8 year old daughter broke her arm in the power side sliding door of the Venture Van on 9/19/04. The National transportation Safety Administration opened an investigation of this problem on 9/17/04. I have reported my incident with them, and am hoping for a recall. When the doors are opening, there is no sensor to to detect interferance, and my daughter's arm was caught between the door handle and the back of her seat, and the door continued to open until it broke both bones in her right fore-arm. She is now in a cast. You can read the story in it's entirety here: http://eyecatchershome.com/Chevy-Venture-Unsafe-doors.html

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none

Roomy & comfortable interior.

Some problems

We has to take back the van to the dealership to hook up the back windshield wiper. It was unplugged. The side door was leaking. The dealership fixed the problem. I asked my wife to keep all the repair tickets in a file for future references.

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1990 Chevrolet Lumina Van with 144,000 miles.

Extended Warranty

Poor Quality from the manufacturer.

I,just,purchased a 2004 Venture LS van with 14,483 miles and the outside molding has came loose already after three days. With all the reviews I have read on the Venture, I am scared about the future. I thank GOD I got the extended warranty.

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1990 Chevrolet Lumina Van with 144000 miles.

Great interior room with modular seats. Good video system. Excellent fuel economy and range (we go 700 miles between fill ups!). Good ride and visibilty.

Plastic parts that break.

Very happy with this van thus far. Have put over 20,000 trouble free miles on it. Outstanding fuel economy averaging over 28MPG to Maine and back from Kansas every summer. Great cruiser, strong on the highway and the kids love the video screen with the headphones. Some small quality issues with cheap plastic parts (show me a newer vehicle that doesn't have the same)that break. I just replace myself with stronger materials. A lot of griping about this vehicle but I suspect that like the majority of drivers out there on the road, many of those having trouble don't know much about vehicles or how to drive them. Just drive around in the city for a while and you'll know what I mean. Over all very satisfied with the Venture.

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